The story of RED CLIFF takes place in 208 AD in China during
the Han Dynasty. Despite the presence of an emperor, Han Xiandi,
China was then divided into many warring states.

The ambitious Prime Minister Cao Cao, by using the Emperor
as his puppet, waged war on a kingdom in the west, Xu, ruled
by the emperor’s uncle, Liu Bei. Cao Cao’s ultimate
goal was to wipe out all the kingdoms and install himself
as Emperor to a unified China. Liu Bei sent his military advisor
Zhuge Liang as an envoy to the Wu Kingdom in the south, trying
to persuade its ruler Sun Quan into joining forces. There
he met Wu’s Viceroy Zhou Yu, and the two became friends
amidst this uneasy alliance.

Enraged to learn that the two kingdoms have become allies,
Cao Cao sent an army of eight hundred thousand soldiers and
two thousand ships down south, hoping to kill two birds with
one stone. Cao Cao’s army set up camp at Crow Forest,
across the Yangtze River from Red Cliff, where the allies
were stationed.

With the food supply running short, and the army vastly outnumbered
by Cao Cao’s, the allies seemed doomed. Zhou Yu and
Zhuge Liang had to rely on their combined wisdom to turn the
tide of battle. Numerous battles of wits and forces, on land
and on water, eventually culminated into the most famous battle
in Chinese history, where two thousand ships were burned,
and the course of China’s history was changed forever.
That was the Battle of Red Cliff.

Movie Review:

Red Cliff, the highly anticipated epic period flick marks
the return of "bullets and guns" maestro John Woo
back to making movies in the Asia region. Taking on a section
of the well-loved novel, Romance of the Three Kingdom, this
grand tale is being told in not one but two movies.

The
decision to split this epic tale is an understandable one
(although I hope it’s not a monetary reason) Against
the criticism that Andy Lau’s recent version of The
Three Kingdom had over done with the fast forwarding sequences
of events that rushes to the eventual finale, Red Cliff took
the other route and took it’s time in laying out the
story.

On
one hand, it allowed more build up in various characters and
agenda while the rivaling sides prepare for the battle at
Red Cliff. Taking it’s time to slow-boil the various
elements such as the different reasons for battle, the reluctance
to fight and the eventual change of mind.

However
taking the time and effort doesn’t mean it will be compelling
or engaging as Red Cliff succeeded in some parts and falter
in others.

One
of the distractions from enjoying this movie would be the
casting choice and (largely to personal preference) some actors
felt that they had been miscast, especially for the role of
Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang. Although the respectable Zhang Fengyi
was great in Farewell to my Concubine, it felt that he lacks
the scheming and cunningness to pull off this role. The same
with Takeshi Kaneshiro’s portrayal of Zhuge Liang which
often invite stray thoughts of "What if Chow Yun Fatt
had played this role or what if Tony Leung had not took over
Zhou Yu’s role instead"

Beside
the miscast, it felt that various characters had been mishandled.
It’s obvious that Zhou Yu is the central character in
Red Cliff and Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Zilong
are just supporting characters but this film made it felt
that it was relegating these iconic characters to nothing
more than mere capable fighters at Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang’s
disposal. In a way, it felt that it took away some of the
majestic aura that these few characters had long established
in our mind.

Several
situations that compel the various characters to act also
didn’t felt that compelling at all. Such as Sun Quan
(Chang Cheng)’s reluctant and dilemma in going to war
with Cao Cao felt very naively handled. Especially in a scene
when Sun Quan had to face his fears in the form of a tiger
and the filmmakers chose to impose Cao Cao’s face over
the beast to force the point down the audience throat. The
fight with the tiger was also unimpressive in the age of spectacular
special effects and the lack of scenes between the actor and
the tiger in the same shot stood out as a sore thumb.

What
Red Cliff succeeded was breathing new life to Zhou Yu’s
character who is known to be a petty General who was jealous
of Zhuge Liang’s capabilities. Tony Leung and Director
John Woo had came together to paint a more endearing aspect
for Zhou Yu. From his appreciation of music to how he leaded
the first major battle in this epic was rather intriguing
and impressive to someone who is unaware of his role in The
Three Kingdom.

Fans
of John Woo will be also be please to find that the director’s
trademark “Slow Mo” action sequences and ballistic
ballet with bullets had been proficiently replaced with horse
ridding sequences and weapons such as spears and swords. Even
the ever present white doves serve a more useful function
besides its usual running away from gunfights in director
John Woo’s movies.

It’s
not technically possible in giving a fair assessment to Red
Cliff with just the first part. The problem with movies that
are told in two parts would be that it’s hard to judge
what would be the fruition of events and characters. Witnessing
the set up of events and characters could be tedious and unrewarding.
However for the first part, it doesn’t really strike
a strong chord with what it was trying to do (such as brotherhood
and strategies) basically it gives a very weak start for the
epic.

Movie Rating:

(An average prologue that isn’t that enticing
for the subsequent part 2)